This book is a unique enigma! It feels like you walk in the dark, collecting bread crumbs to find your way to the end of the tunnel which will lead you the bad witch’s candy house! You keep gathering missing pieces of puzzle : from different timelines, unreliable characters’ narrations.

Here are facts I gathered after reading nearly 50
pages: Nadja Kulka opens her eyes, fell from a cliff, probably pushed, suffering from concussion, blood oozing from her head, forcing herself to drive to some cottage in the woods after attracting suspicion of gas station owners. She’s carrying something in her baggage, wearing a wig( we don’t know why)

We are also introduced to Nelly Schütt by moving 5 years backwards: she’s young girl, with keen interest in black and white noir movies, working at her parents’ inn, having an affair with a married, older man which will be her ruin.

And we are also introduced Nadja’a workaholic and intimidating boss Gero and his free spirited, vivid wife Laura who was former assistant of Gero and resigned from her job to be stay at home mom to take care of her their daughter Viv!

And we also read so many letters describing chaotic mind of a woman who’s seen a therapist talking about her past: taking care of a woman named Martha! We don’t know who she is or to whom the were letters written.

All those storylines seem like separated but keep reading, be patient, the author is so smart, a mathematics genius: creating unique equations.

Eventually Nadja finds herself trapped in a very complex, dangerous game and only way to survive is confronting her past mistakes and unleashing the animal she’d locked inside!

I honestly didn’t like this book as much as Dear Child .

None of the characters were relatable. They did horrible things. They are mean, manipulative, cheater, killer, abuser, liar scumbags with psychopathic tendencies!

But this a creepy, ultra smart, well developed thriller with lots of cryptic mind games so dealing with very irritating characters didn’t affect my enjoyment!

But the bothering thing about my reading is at last third the pace was wobbled and I felt like the author had second thoughts about how she would end this story and which characters would be punished! Well, at the end she finally wrapped up well but the wobbling feeling left bad taste in my mouth!

I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to 4 enigmatic, chaotic, tragic, dark, bleak, harsh, intense stars!
I loved the author’s extremely dark and extraordinarily smart mind. I’m looking forward to read her future works.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This was a fast-paced, multilayered, complex thriller with a multiple characters and alternate time periods. I had listened to the audio version of this originally and was honestly completely lost due to the complexity. This translates so much better in print form. The duel time periods worked well and made the anticipation profound throughout. There was a completely unexpected twist. This was an overall excellent addition to the psychological thriller genre.

Sadly, I DNFd this one at about 40%. I found this extremely hard to get into and quite confusing. I liked one of the storylines but the rest seemed to be a bit all over the place. I've read many reviews that said it starts to make sense and get better after the half-way mark but I just couldn't make it there. I absolutely loved Dear Child but Sleepless was a miss for me.

Oh My Gosh! And here I thought Dear Child was a five star outta this world book! Ummm was I totally wrong!

First off THANK YOU (My Favorite Publisher) Flatiron Books! NetGalley and author for this wild ebook advance copy!

Romy Hausmann does it again!. A story of love, jealousy and guilt!
Sleepless was a compelling, addictive, brilliant, wavering page-turner!
Told from multiple points of view.... also enjoyed how this jumps around in time.
I found it to be very interesting and intriguing!
The characters.... wow! In one word satisfactory...
The uniquely well written plot was just outstanding in every way possible.
It was one of those "I for real can not put my Kindle down" sorta things!
Romy simply out did herself with this electrifying book!

I can't thank you enough for giving me the chance to read and review😘
Made my Month so much more enjoyable!
Now if I can just can just get approved for The Husbands and four others my freaking year will be made!
No pressure though LoL 😘😉
I'll post to my Goodreads and Bookstagram account closer to pub date!

I was so excited for this and by the end, I would say I did like it, but man did it take me a lot of chapters to figure out what was going on. Was it just me? I had a hard time following the different characters and time periods and storylines, and normally that's not an issue for me. But then it hit its stride for me and I enjoyed it.

Nadja has been in prison since she was 15 years old. Did she kill her mother or just witness the murder? Now, she’s finally been released from prison and she wants nothing more than to lead a boring, ordinary life. That ordinary life just isn’t in the cards, as Laura, the wife of Nadja’s boss begs her for help after killing her lover. For some reason, Nadja can’t say no, and the two women look for a way to dispose of the body so it will never be found. This book was difficult to get into, but once I got past the first 25% or so, I was hooked. Readers will be left guessing about Nadja’s true motives and her innocence or guilt